Tapping Dads

Children's recitals are usually staged for the benefit of parents. Except for the Temecula Dance Company's recitals. Somehow, they manage to get parents into the act. Along with hundreds of competitive dancers and dance students who will showcase their talents, almost 100 father-daughter dance teams will perform in the company's recitals over the next two weekends in a salute to Hollywood. Also performing will be the Tapping Dads, a group of 11 fathers in tuxedos and tap shoes dancing to Dean Martin singing "Ain't That a Kick in the Head."

The father-daughter dance has evolved over the past six years. It provides an opportunity for paternal involvement that involves more than driving a car or writing a check. "It's the hardest thing I've ever done," Bill Stanonis said at one of the last rehearsals before the show. Stanonis, an electrical mechanic contractor, said his daughter Erica, 9, has been patient with him. "She's trying to teach me, but I have three left feet." On the athletic field, men may teach their children how to throw a ball and swing a bat, but on the floor of a dance studio, the fathers look to their little girls for help in mastering the waltz and learning to perform lifts.

Girls as young as age 3 and as old as 17 take their dads aside, count out the steps and show them one more time. Some of the men had never had a dance lesson before getting involved. When he was growing up, Matt Beutler said, taking dance lessons wasn't cool. "Boys played soccer," he said. "They didn't dance." Beutler is now getting to fulfill a boyhood yearning to learn to dance. For plumbing contractor David Serrano, taking part in the annual father-daughter dance is a way to spend one-on-one time with his daughter Alli, 9. He's also enjoyed meeting the other dads, who come from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Serrano said the dance floor is the great equalizer. "It doesn't matter what you do for a living in here," Serrano said of the dance studio. "We have a fire chief, a CPA, an airline pilot, a corporate executive and construction workers. If one dad can't make it, another will fill in." Since all the men start with the same level of dance experience, Serrano said, they don't feel stupid learning the dance steps. This is his second year in the review. His daughter Alli has been taking lessons for three years. "I have a son in soccer, and this is just as physically demanding as the soccer," he said after the rehearsal. "I'm really sweating." Also a member of the Tapping Dads, Serrano said that after the first rehearsal in January, most of the men couldn't walk the next day. They were out of breath after one run-through. Now, after rehearsing for a solid hour, they urge their instructor to let them try it one more time, from the top. "This is one of my favorite classes to teach," said dance instructor Jimmy Peters, who choreographed both routines.

The Temecula Dance Company has approximately 700 students, 100 of whom dance on competitive dance teams. In order to accommodate the large number of dancers and their families, the performances are spread over two weekends. The company is divided into thirds, each third performing two different shows. The Tapping Dads will perform at all of the shows. Reach Shannon Starr at (909) 587-3136 or sstarr@pe.com DANCE RECITAL When: Show 1, 7 p.m. today and 2 p.m. Saturday; Show 2, 7 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday; Show 3, 2 and 7 p.m. July 26. Where: Saint Jeanne De Lestonnac Center for the Performing Arts, 32650 Avenida Lestonnac, Temecula. Tickets: $10, available at Temecula Dance Company.

Tapping Dads Entertain Again This Year

BY DEIRDRE NEWMAN - STAFF WRITER
THE CALIFORNIAN
TEMECULA

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

TEMECULA ---- Since the golden age of Fred Astaire and Sammy Davis Jr., male tap-dancers have mostly gone the way of the dodo bird ---- toward extinction.

A local revival has occurred over the past few years, though. A group of men affiliated with Temecula Dance Company ----- known tongue-in-cheek as the World Famous Tapping Dads ---- will be deftly dancing their way across a stage in eight performances at St. Jeanne De Lestonnac School. Their performances are included in a series of shows featuring students from Temecula Dance Company that started Tuesday night and concludes Sunday.

The Tapping Dads are an elite bunch ---- out of nearly 1,000 girls participating in the shows, only 14 of their dads have the wherewithal to tap dance, said one of them, David Serrano, a salesman whose daughter Alli dances with the company. And they do it with the gusto befitting a group of men participating in any sport ---- with a competitive streak, a desire to look good and a lot of razzing on the side.

"I don't want to look better than everyone, just the guy next to me," Serrano joked after a rehearsal Monday evening.

Many of the dads were enticed into strapping on tap shoes by their daughters, as was the case with Mike Ritacca, a plant manager. His daughters, Alyssa, 16, and Annelise, 7, volunteered him.

"I had no choice," he said. "I didn't think I could do it.

The dads find they can succeed in unfamiliar territory under the training of teacher Katie Morel and artistic director/choreographer Jimmy Peters, although many said they were surprised at how strenuous tap dancing can be.

"We (mostly) played sports when we were younger and dancing was never considered one," said Nick Almond, a professional pilot, pointing out how much he had sweat through his shirt Monday.

The Tapping Dads have been strutting their stuff for three years now, Peters said. It all started when some of the girls from the company were competing on a cruise and their dads mentioned that they would like to participate because they were going to be on board anyway, Peters said.

But Peters didn't want to just shoehorn them into the show; he wanted them to do something unique. So he gave them tap shoes.

Why tap dancing?

"They could progress more, it's more rhythmic and you can hear the rhythms better," Peters said.

The dads take their dance number seriously, Peters said. For nearly two months, they have held weekly practice sessions, working on their steps for an hour or two each time. And that pace has picked up in the last week as they prepared for the shows.

Some of the dads have been known to practice in their offices. Others rearrange their work schedules as the shows near or take the week off. The group even squeezed in an extra rehearsal Sunday because they weren't quite up to snuff, Peters said.

The dads' physiques range from tall and lanky to short and stocky and everything in between. Yet, the common denominator among them as they rehearsed Monday was their intense concentration and their beaming smiles. Between practices, they joke around and rib each other including when one fell to the floor in mock exhaustion as another leaned over him and pretended to resuscitate him.

The fun the dads are having has not been lost on their wives, said Temecula Dance Company co-owner Ed Morel.

"They say they haven't seen their husbands that happy in an activity since they were first married and had time to do stuff," Morel said.

That's because once kids arrive on the scene, the new dads typically make family a priority, often sacrificing their own interests, he added.

"The key point to this whole thing is ---- I think it brings them a lot more joy than they experience through their job or anything else," Morel said.

In addition, the dads say they relish the chance to share this activity with their daughters.

"They sit at home on the couch when I practice and hoot and squeal," said Rod Amstutz, an elementary school teacher who has two daughters who dance.

"We're just here for our girls, so we can share this time with them," added Ron Broussard, an automobile service manager who also has two daughters who take classes.

During the shows, their tap-dancing number is part of the larger Father/Daughter dance routine featuring more than 200 dads and girls. This year, the Tapping Dads are dancing to "Mack the Knife" in their traditional tuxedoes.

When the spotlight is on them, the Tapping Dads will likely draw an emotional reaction from the audience, even though they aren't a novelty act anymore.

"It's the biggest hoot," Morel said. "Almost every year, they get a standing ovation. Jimmy teaches the dads how to play to the audience. He's taught them to perform, not to be goofy, which I think people expected."

Contact staff writer Deirdre Newman at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2623, or dnewman@californian.com.